Deep Dreamers, here’s another wonderful repository of open-access images: The National Gallery of Art makes open-access works in its collection available in a dedicated website. Go to NGA Images to see and choose from among over 51,000 digitized open-access works. You’ll find everything from Impressionist paintings to iconic works by U.S. artists. The site has a particularly useful feature: Select the most convenient image size and resolution. What is more, the NGA has organized images […]

The drive to make art available for educational and other purposes has spawned new websites like wikiart. Wikiart’s mission is to collect art from around the world and make it accessible to everyone. Search for images by a broad range of categories, not just art styles or artists, but also unusual criteria like female artists. The site operates on the wiki principle: Anyone may contribute and edit content. Of course, new content is consistently moderated. […]

The online journal The Public Domain Review showcases a large number of curated collections of PD images. An excellent classification system facilitates searching. Narrow down your search by defining criteria such as the century created, the type of artwork or its source (such as museums, libraries, government agencies). Understandably, most of the images are pre-twentieth-century works. But especially if art curiosities from centuries past are what you’re looking for as a Deep Dreamer, you will […]

The Rijksmuseum is a pioneer of the movement toward digitization and open access in the GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives and museums) sector. It initially released over 100,000 images of artworks to the public domain already in 2012. Shortly thereafter, the Rijksmuseum launched Rijksstudio to allow users to create their own exhibition pages and share material. In fact, the museum encourages users to reuse images and share the results with the Rijksmuseum. To access the Rijksmuseum’s […]

The Cleveland Museum of Art recently joined the league of museums that have adopted an open access policy. Here’s an excerpt from the announcement by Creative Commons on January 23, 2019: “Today, we are announcing a release of 30,000 high quality, free and open digital images from the museum’s collection under CC0 and available via their API. CC0 allows anyone to use, re-use, and remix a work without restriction.” This is great news for all […]

The Belvedere museum is the first museum in Austria to provide open access to parts of its collection online. About half the items in the collection are available in high resolution. So you’re free to download, share and remix any of these CC0 images without restriction. The works include a few fascinating paintings by Austrian artists like Gustav Klimt, Albin Egger-Lienz and Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller. But you also have open access to works by other […]

Open access at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met): In early 2017, the Met made over 406,000 high-resolution images of public domain works in its collection freely available. Thus, you may download, share and remix any of these CC0 images without restriction. It’s wonderful to have a guilt-free source of high-quality images as sources or styles for dreaming! What is more, the huge collection is easy to browse: Apply very efficient filters to narrow down […]

The Art Institute of Chicago has made over 50,000 public domain images of works in its collection available under CC0. What an unexpected bonanza! But it’s true: The Terms and Conditions and guidelines on open access images confirm it. Browse the collection online. Discover stunning Impressionist treasures, iconic Americana – American Gothic! – or familiar pop art images.You won’t be able to take favorites still subject to copyright. But the images you may download are high-resolution photos […]